Transformative Learning

Orientation: Coaching is sometimes used in organisations to assist and support people when they are promoted into senior leadership positions. These coaching interventions are not optimally designed.Research purpose: The objective of this research was to investigate how a transition coaching intervention should be designed to cater specifically for people promoted into senior leadership positions.Motivation for the study: Leaders face daunting challenges when promoted into a senior position. Coaching could offer powerful support, but very little research exists on how to design a transition coaching intervention specifically aimed at supporting recently promoted senior leaders.Research design, approach and method: A constructivist, grounded theory approach using purposeful, theoretical sampling was used to identify 16 participants (recently promoted senior leaders, coaches, Human Resource [HR] partners and a line manager) from various organisations with whom open-ended interviews we...

In You Are the Universe, the contemplative endocrinologist Deepak Chopra and the MIT physicist Menas Kafatos offer a groundbreaking, lucid work on consciousness that is refreshingly accessible without relying upon mathematical language or overspecialized jargon. In summary, their book is a serious attempt to address the fundamental contemporary question, “Is the universe made of matter that learned to think, or is the universe made of mind that created matter?” (Chopra & Kafatos, 2017, p. 154). By the end of the book Chopra and Kafatos have gone so far as to argue that not only is the universe created and sustained by an underlying mind but that we are the universe, we are that mind. In a real sense, they declare, we as an organic species have co-created this universe.

Although Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) has been around for more than 40 years, few studies empirically engage critical theoretical frameworks to move beyond personal learning to identify the impacts of transformation on society. The purpose of this article is to discuss academic literature that expands TLT in the direction of societal transformation rather than merely personal change. The idea, supported by myriad scholars (Brookfield, 1998, 2002, 2012; Cranton & Taylor, 2012; Johnson-Bailey & Alfred, 2006; O’Sullivan, 1999, 2012), is deeply rooted in my desire to understand what transformational learning moves students toward acting as agents of social change (Gambrell, 2017a; 2017b). As a professor of teacher candidates, I teach several foundational classes that encourage students to be educators to work to dismantle structures that uphold White supremacy, (hetero-)patriarchy, cis-normativity, neoliberalism, linguicism, among other educational injustices.

In this review essay 1 , I try to explore the following question: How can we evaluate the process and the outcomes of perspectives transformation? Where is the research on the assessment of transformative learning outcomes today and where it is going in the future? I will describe the most popular tools (see Stuckey, Taylor, Cranton, 2013) for the evaluation of the outcomes of learning activities that may be conceptualized as transformative experiences. The four instruments compared are: 1. Kember's Critical Reflection Questionnaire, a 16-question, four-scale questionnaire (Kember et al., 2000, p. 392); 2. Learning Activity Survey (Learning Activities Survey, King, 2009) questionnaire, based on the theory of the ten steps precursors to transformative learning (King, 2009); 3. Transformative Learning Survey (Stuckey, Taylor, Cranton, 2014); 4. VALUE rubric (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) (AACU, 2013), whose variation Student Transformative Learning Record (Barthell et al., 2010) was created for the assessment of students' own authentic work. Those instruments represent the effort of (a) going beyond the qualitative retrospective approach and (b) finding indicators for the critical reflection engaged by people (students or professionals) in their learning experiences. The purpose is to appeal to faculty members, adult educators, professional coaches, mentoring experts, healthcare professionals in Counselling and Psychotherapy, offering them a review of both qualitative and quantative approaches that they could adopt in their professional practices.

A common outcome of entering post‐compulsory education as a mature aged learner appears to be development and growth of the self. However, this is often only viewed as an outcome or considered an added benefit, rather than an integral part of the academic process itself. This paper explores the relationship between academic growth and personal growth, arguing that they are not mutually exclusive categories, but inter‐related ones. Using a grounded theory approach it is suggested that a ‘re‐negotiation’ of the self was evident amongst a group of 31 mature students at different stages of their further and higher education courses. The reasons why this might be such a salient issue for mature aged cohorts is discussed.

All too often education research focuses on academic disparities with under-served student populations. Frequently, both remedial and introductory college-level mathematics courses are cited as gatekeepers or insurmountable barriers for adult low-socioeconomic status (LSES) students. There has been a call from within the mathematics education community for less gap-gazing at disparities and more studies of success within marginalized groups. Many previously unsuccessful, under-prepared, under-served, and under-supported students persist and eventually succeed. In addition, there is a lack of research through the lens of the community college as a unique educational context, distinct from both K-12 and the four year colleges and universities. The goal of this hermeneutical phenomenological study is to describe and interpret the lived experienced of previously unsuccessful LSES students who became successful. Ten students told their stories during unstructured phenomenological interviews. Upon analysis of the interview transcripts, themes appeared consistent with the patterns of the inward and outward journeys found in the Hero’s Journey or monomyth narrative structure. The stages of the monomyth as described in the work of Campbell (2008) are rooted in the universal human themes of the transformational quest. Six meta-themes appeared through the textual analysis of the interview transcripts; 1) the call of a better life that requires education, 2) connections with mentors and allies through authentic relationships, 3) the cultural border crossing at the threshold to higher education, 4) perspective transformations taking place as tests presented by an array of threshold guardians are passed, 5) increasing resilience through taking ownership and increasing networks of connections as the labyrinth of higher education was navigated, 6) after seizing the magic elixir of education the desire to pay it forward.  Their stories reveal a perspective transformation as described in Mezirow’s (1981) transformative learning theory. These stories of transformational learning as experienced by previously unsuccessful LSES community college students provide essential insights as to how we might foster positive learning transformations, and more importantly, avoid being the source of needless obstacles for our students. These findings present a narrative counter to the current deafening drumbeat of the anti-developmental education, completion and acceleration agendas.

This text is a non-linear bricollage of reflections that surfaced at a keynote address at the Lapes conference in San Francisco in 2017. In this event,  I invited participants to ponder and wonder about existence, reality, meaning, and practices of political and existential resistance through interwoven images, analyses, propositions, invitations and open-ended questions. This text echoes the invitation issued in this event to re-imagine and experience education as collective onto-genesis: an expansion of horizons and constellations of knowledges, affect, lived experiences, sensibilities, temporalities, spatialities, rhythms, neuro-metabolic processes, and possibilities of (co)existence.

Internationalization of higher education has influenced the learning environment at many top ranked universities, especially in Western Europe. One of the important marks of internationalization is an increase in international student enrollment, which makes it essential to focus on the learning experiences of international students in such intercultural learning environments. This paper explores the learning experiences of international students at Aalborg University Denmark, which is having a learning environment that is practicing Problem-Oriented and Project Based Learning (POPBL) in all of its engineering programs.

This paper was inspired by Carol Lakey Hess’s (1997) chapter, “Women and Conversational Education: Hard Dialogue and Deep Connections in Communities of Faith” in her book, Caretakers of Our Common House. In this chapter, she advocates for “conversational education” in faith communities, which means “getting people to engage one another in honest and deep ways” in order to “probe beneath the surface” and “question the way things are” (pp. 182-183). “To be a community of inquiry,” Hess asserts, “means that in conversation people seek truth together, question unexamined assumptions, and challenge one another to go deeply into the search” (p. 190). Hess’s concept of hard dialogue sounds similar to Jack Mezirow’s “critical-dialectical discourse,” which plays a key role in his theory of transformative learning, with one difference being that Hess is speaking in terms of the context of faith communities, while Mezirow is concerned with adult education in general. In my doctoral work, I hav...

Engaging with beauty can orient mind, heart and action in this era of ecological destruction. First, I present a vision of beauty that acknowledges some of its common critiques while salvaging it from claims that it is merely subjective, or worse, destructive. I then focus on how the ecological crisis elicits and invites participation in actions towards vulnerable things and the beauty they invoke. I reflect on my life experiences and engagements with art to help understand the possibilities and power in the beauty of vulnerable things and of actions towards them. While I acknowledge and address some difficulties with beauty as the basis for action, I suggest it is better suited to engage the ecological crisis than appealing to emotions such as hope or relying on prevalent ethical approaches. I end the paper by considering the transformative role aesthetics should play in reimagining subject focus, interdisciplinarity and character development in school curricula and pedagogy aimed at sustainability.

For adult learners, it is important to make meaning of their lives through a critical worldview to better construe the world around them. Therefore, transformative learning posits a better position to explain adult learning processes where adults construct and interpret their experiences in order to validate their fidelity and to make appropriate decisions.Another aspect of the practice of meaningful and useful learning in the adult classroom is creative learning. Its main objective is to help adults open themselves to new possibilities, to play with ideas, to experiment, and to modulate their reactions to fast-changing environments. The purpose of this article is to portray that the implementation of transformative and creative learning is an admirable approach to offer potential personal growth among adult learners. First, the nature of transformative and creative learning is discussed. Then the barriers and practice of two learning strategies in classrooms are explored. Finally, implications and suggestions are provided.

Real world objects have persistent structure. However, as we move about in the world the spatio-temporal patterns coming from our sensory organs vary continuously. How the brain creates invariant representations from the always-changing input patterns is a major unanswered question. We propose that the neocortex solves the invariance problem by using a hierarchical structure. Each region in the hierarchy learns and recalls sequences of inputs. Temporal sequences at each level of the hierarchy become the spatial inputs to the next higher regions. Thus the entire memory system stores sequences in sequences. The hierarchical model is highly efficient in that object representations at any level in the hierarchy can be shared among multiple higher order objects, therefore, transformations learned for one set of objects will automatically apply to others. Assuming a hierarchy of sequences, and assuming that each region in the hierarchy behaves equivalently, we derive the optimal Bayes inference rules for any level in the cortical hierarchy and we show how feedfoward and feedback can be understood within this probabilistic framework. We discuss how the hierarchical nested structure of sequences can be learned. We show that static group formation and probability density formation are special cases of remembering sequences. Thus, although normal vision is a temporal process we are able to recognize flashed static images as well. We use the most basic form of one of these special cases to train an object recognition system that exhibits robust invariant recognition.

The effective use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for community education for sustainability (EfS) can promote understanding and action of community members regarding local sustainability issues. ICT tools and features, such as online EfS websites, have the potential to be designed, shaped and delivered in a locally relevant and meaningful way based on social and cultural perspectives and needs.
The objective of this model is to empower community members to address relevant sustainability issues affecting the local community. The model is based on theoretical considerations from ICT, EfS, and community education recommended in the literature as effective approaches for the achievement of socio-ecologically sustainable communities. A systems thinking approach guides the combination of these theoretical considerations, and the design process of online learning systems for community EfS.

Paper Presented at the Australian Association for Environmental Education 2014, Hobart, Tasmania.

In this article, Aislinn O'Donnell offers a set of reflections on the relation between therapy and education. In the first section, she examines criticisms of therapeutic education, mobilizing the example of prison education to highlight the difficulties that arise from imposing prescriptive modes of subjectification and socialization in pedagogy. In the second section, she addresses the relation between therapy and education by focusing on just one element of the experience of education: those moments at which a subject has the potential of becoming significant in the life of a student. An important dimension of the educator's authority involves noticing such moments, fostering the conditions that make them more likely, and engaging in the creative process and practice of deciding how best pedagogically to respond to these moments. In the third section, O'Donnell develops this idea by detailing a philosophical approach and practice that understands ''effectiveness'' in education as bound to practice, creative responsiveness, and the judgment of the educator in concrete, singular pedagogical situations, rather than construed in terms of generic models of ''best practice.'' 1. Christine Winter offered a critique of such initiatives in ''School Humanities and the Pursuit of Democracy: Opening Minds and the Humanities Curriculum Project'' (paper presented at the conference of the Women in the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Edinburgh, Scotland, October 2011). 2. Amy Shuffelton, in her essay ''A Matter of Friendship: Educational Interventions into Culture and Poverty'' (in this issue), outlines the potentially problematic outcomes of ostensibly benevolent forms of cultural intervention.

It is not a question of whether conflict within a school will occur, but rather when it will manifest and by whom. Often times, conflict occurring between key stakeholders such as teachers, parents, and students is looked upon as tainting school culture or sabotaging change strategies. However, conflict may also serve as a catalyst for larger discussions of deficit thinking

This article presents a longitudinal research study that led to the development of a theoretical framework for explaining how students experience the process of transformational learning in service-learning. The article describes non-reflective and reflective dimensions of the process of transformational learning. The author recommends that future research focus on supporting the transformative potential of service-learning.

Taking as a point of departure the diversity of writings developed around the concept of “Critical Reflection”, this paper outlines various ways to organize them beyond the traditional epistemological, theoretical and practical compartmentalizations. Through the introduction of seven principles illustrating the Paradigm of complexity (Edgar Morin), a heuristic approach is proposed to revisit one’s own look on such a field.

There appears to be generally a broad consensus that the multidimensional nature and complexity underlying the critical problems of Africa such as poverty, food insecurity and disease urge for integrated and holistic views and approaches to deal with the challenges successfully. Innovation systems approaches are promising, but in practice they require new mindsets and competences for systemic thinking, institutional interfaces and partnerships. Often curriculum review is seen as a solution to such new demands, but in reality, even before considering curriculum review, it is critical that universities deal with the basic elements of changing mindsets, and building a new vision and new skills for training and research amongst the academic staff. This paper is based on a 'personal mastery/soft skills experiment towards reorienting mindsets and building complementary skills among university lecturers for holistic and interactive learning; and impact oriented research and consultancy. The initiative was conducted with 26 lecturers from three agriculture related Faculties of Makerere University over a period of two years. Overall enhancement it enhanced personal and professional development profiles of the lecturers which resulted in more interactive teaching, a move towards action research, and more marketable development consultants and facilitators. Specifically, the assessment brought out the following outcomes: enhanced self-awareness and taking action to develop their full potentials; the abilities to influence change in the university system through feedback; taking initiative to work in team and promote peer-learning; facilitation skills for interactive learning and collective action processes; overcoming fear to try out new things as reflective practitioners; communication for problem solving -negotiation, conflict resolution; and thinking beyond disciplinary boundaries to influence development impact through action research and process consultancy.

The article reports on an action research project, informed by transformative learning theory. Transformative learning involves individuals gaining an awareness of their current habits of mind, and resulting points of views accompanied by a critique of their assumptions and premises, an assessment of alternative views, a decision to negate an old perspective or view in favour of a new one, or to make a synthesis of old and new, resulting in more justified beliefs to guide action. The action research was designed to change the perspectives and practices of higher education teachers from a teacher-centred to a learning-centred dialogic approach. The research demonstrated that a transformation in teaching perspective could be achieved through action research that involved inquiring and interactive teaching. However, implementing the new perspective required additional sustained support. The research also confirmed that action research is a viable means of exploring transformative learning in educational settings.

Aftab Omer, Ph.D. is a sociologist, psychologist, futurist and the president of Meridian University. Raised in Pakistan, India, Hawaii, and Turkey, he was educated at the universities of M.I.T, Harvard and Brandeis. His publications have addressed the topics of transformative learning, cultural leadership, generative entrepreneurship and the power of imagination. His work includes assisting organizations in tapping the creative potentials of conflict, diversity, and complexity. He is a Fellow of the International Futures Forum and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Meridian University, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, offers Masters and Doctoral degree programs in Psychology, Education and Business. The curriculum for all three programs is situated within an integral framework, interweaving both informational and transformative learning.

A critical component to instituting compassionate, patient-centered diabetes care is the training of health care providers. Our institution developed the Family Centered Experience (FCE), a comprehensive 2-year preclinical program based on longitudinal conversations with patients about living with chronic illness. The goal of the FCE is to explore the experience of illness from the patient's perspective and ultimately to incorporate this perspective in clinical practice. In this qualitative study, we wished to investigate the impact of ''diabetes stories''-the stories of FCE volunteers with diabetes-

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This article is a review of Mezirow's transformative learning from its inception to the latest definition. The review builds on Taylor's earlier discussions, but unlike his review, this history of transformative learning relies predominantly on Mezirow's publications to ...

We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not. Heraclitis …the Dark Philosopher of Ancient Greece Moreover, we step into and out of the river as different beings. Tim Rayner …contemporary change theorist In pondering the human condition, political theorist Hannah Arendt (1958) asserts that all humans are conditioned beings. Yet, the conditions of human existence-life itself, natality and mortality, worldliness, plurality, and the earth-can never 'explain' what we are or answer the question of who we are for the simple reason that they never condition us absolutely. (p. 11) 1 Elizabeth A. Lange ([email protected]) is Associate Professor of Adult Education at St. Francis Xavier University, Canada. She has 30 years of experience as an educator and facilitator of transformative learning in formal and nonformal settings. Her research focuses on transformative learning, sustainability education for adults, and transcultural learning and immigration. The introductory text The Purposes of Adult Education, 3 rd Edition, 2014, was co-written with Bruce Spencer (Thompson Educational Publishing).

This presentation concentrates on the aspects and experiences of undergraduate students' personal empowerment. It considers the powerful role of mathematics in enhancing undergraduate students' general thinking and learning skills, creativity, independence, self-confidence and personal agency. These features of empowerment will be outlined theoretically and also by using the data from interviews with undergraduate students gathered both in The United States and in Finland. Additionally, some elements of mathematics instruction needed in this kind of an empowerment will be discussed.

Speaking about curriculum, very o en we think of some exact, preplanned curricula determined for schools in advance. However in the new approach called Emergent Curriculum, all the bene ciaries including students, teachers, parents , society and all of whom are considered protagonists play some role in curriculum decision making and formation of learning. In Emergent Curriculum inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach there is no preplanned curriculum, it means the teacher and educational system a ect what children are supposed to learn. In this study, the main research objective was a study of the formation of Emergent curriculum and documentation of the process. For this purpose, an ethnographic study was employed. e research was carried out in an uno cial school in Tehran.

In their 2013 paper, "A theory in progress? Issues in transformative learning theory," Taylor and Cranton were concerned that the theory of transformative learning has not progressed because there has been too much attention given to research on transformative experiences per se and not enough attention given to research grounded in primary sources. They identify three "central constructs": the place of experience, empathy, and the desire to change.

John Dirkx. a leading theorist in transformative learning. has focused on "soul" as a central construct. Rosemary Ruether engaged the discussion of "soul making" from a theological perspective and, while she did not use the term "transformative learning," she described soul making as "transformative metanoia," which she elaborates as a multi-dimensional transformation.

This essay joins a conversation with Dirkx and Reuther to examine four central constructs (experience, empathy, the desire to change, and soul) from a theological perspective in order to consider their implications for theological education.

During the past three years the UK government has provided increasing funds for schools to invest in interactive whiteboard technology, together with research initiatives to evaluate the effectiveness of practitioner use. MirandaNet has been involved in the evaluation of interactive whiteboard technology and use for the past five years. This paper examines studies led and managed by MirandaNet, through the MirandaNet International Research Centre and MirandaNet Academy, into the ways in which interactive whiteboards have been used as essential tools to develop and implement school teaching and learning policies. The paper describes schools’ ICT diffusion and integration strategies to enhance all aspects of teaching and learning through school improvement policies. The impact of the work on the schools will be outlined, together with an assessment of the changes in attitudes and attainment. The Impact of Interactive Whiteboards on Teaching, Learning and Attainment During the past thr...

On completion of the article, the reader should be able to: q Describe the importance of reflective practice in everyday orthopaedic nursing practice q Begin to identify and challenge the various types of knowledge used in everyday orthopaedic nursing practice q Use a simple model of structured reflection to begin to validate ones' own practice and of the potential for engaging in more formalized reflective practice. UKCC CATEGORIES This article will enable the reader to address PREP categories: q Patient, client and colleague support q Care enhancement q Practice development q Education development. Examples of how this may be achieved and possible evidence for the reader's professional profile are given throughout the article. Other ways to demonstrate your continuing professional development may be to: q Use this article as a discussion item in a ward meeting q From the available literature, select a reflective framework to assist in your ongoing compilation of a reflective section in your Professional Portfolio q Approach a colleague or other significant person outside your clinical area to regularly reflect on practice with, ensuring that you also brief your manager to legitimise your intentions to begin to formally reflect on your practice. Keep a copy of this article together with the notes you make as evidence of completing the reflection items in the text.

La presentazione sintetizza e sviluppa ulteriormente il pensiero contenuto nella pubblicazione "Progettare e discernere". La novità di questo modello di progettazione risiede non solo nella metodologia tras-formativa proposta in cinque tappe – situazione descritta, interpretazione comunitaria, vocazione accolta, visione sperimentata, progettazione operativa – che affondano la loro radice profonda in un momento decisamente spirituale e vocazionale, ma soprattutto nella pressante richiesta di passare da una "progettazione virtuale per obiettivi nominali" ad una "progettazione virtuosa dei processi". Colui che progetta virtualmente in genere decide in maniera verticistica e unilaterale ciò che vuole e poi cerca una collaborazione solo esecutiva da parte degli altri membri della comunità; chi invece progetta virtuosamente sa che ognuno ha i talenti da offrire e quindi cerca sempre una corresponsabilità a tutto tondo da tutti i membri della comunità, perché la migliore idea può venire da qualunque membro della comunità. L’idea di fondo risiede nel fatto che non esiste progettazione educativa e pastorale senza una comunità di fede, che viva quotidianamente alcune virtù personali e altre pro-sociali ben precise: dal punto di vista individuale la fedeltà creativa, il discernimento personale e la coerenza operativa; dal punto di vista comunitario la generosità sistemica, l’accompagnamento generativo e l’integrazione sinergica. Lavorare personalmente e comunitariamente per crescere in ciascuna di queste virtù, verificando con verità dove le cose vanno già bene e dove invece abbiamo bisogno di autentiche conversioni, è un compito ineludibile per ogni comunità educativa che progetta insieme. Il modello è poi esemplificato con degli esempi della progettazione condivisa con la comunità educativa del Borgo don Bosco di Roma che include le aree dell'oratorio, del centro di formazione professionale e dell'area sociale attorno al progetto Rimettere le ali.
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Presentazione in prezi: https://prezi.com/view/ZEa5v9Dddqz19uo7YUlD/

Journal of Advanced Nursing 34(1), 27±34 Developing critical re¯ection for professional practice through problem-based learning Aims. To explore the in¯uence of current learning traditions in nursing on the development of re¯ection and critical re¯ection as professional practice skills and to offer suggestions for nursing education that will speci®cally facilitate the development of critical re¯ection. Organizational constructs. Mezirow's transformative learning theory, Barrows conceptualization of problem-based learning (PBL). Methods. Integrative literature review of published literature related to nursing, health science education and professional education from 1983±2000. Findings. Professional education scholars concur that specialized knowledge is clearly essential for professional practice, however, they also suggest that selfconsciousness (re¯ection) and continual self-critique (critical re¯ection) are crucial to continued competence. While strategies to facilitate re¯ection have been outlined in the literature, speci®c strategies to facilitate the development of critical re¯ection and implications for nursing education are much less clear. Advocates of re¯ective and critically re¯ective practice suggest that the development of these abilities should be inextricably linked to professional development and can be developed through active repeated guided practice. In health care, PBL based on constructivism, has been identi®ed as one way to facilitate the development of these skills. Conclusions. Nursing learners exposed to PBL develop the ability to be re¯ective and critically re¯ective in their learning and acquire the knowledge and skill within the discipline of nursing by encountering key professional practice situations as the stimulus and focus of their classroom learning. The learners' ability to be both re¯ective and critically re¯ective in their learning is developed by critical questioning of the faculty tutor during situational analysis, learning need determination, application of knowledge, critique of resources and personal problem-solving processes, and summarization of what was learned.

Transformative leaders are people who create a transformative learning environment and act as catalyst to engaged with transitions and change management. We all have an opportunity to play a role in Social Transformation – personal change and social change goes together. The article is an introduction to the what, the who, the where and the how of the paradigm and its application.

This research sought to determine what teaching strategies to employ when teaching business ethics courses to undergraduate accounting major students enrolled in the RVR College of Business at De La Salle University. The researcher conducted a survey of students taking Bachelor in Science of Accountancy from freshmen to senior year levels. The students were asked to rank from among eight choices of teaching strategies to determine what will prove to be their preferred strategies when they take up business ethics courses. Using Friedman test and Kendall’s W Test, the results of this study revealed that there is a slight difference in the students’ rank ordered preference for each of the eight teaching strategies with the sub-group learning through ethical discussion and collaborative learning as the most preferred teaching strategy and the technology-enhanced learning or E-learning strategy as the least preferred. This can give us an idea that even though the current generations of s...

Transformative pedagogy encourages students to critically examine their assumptions, grapple with social issues, and engage in social action. The author extends literature in this area by describing ways faculty members who teach online courses can effectively use transformative pedagogy, including (1) creating a safe environment; (2) encouraging students to think about their experiences, beliefs, and biases; (3) using teaching strategies that promote student engagement and participation; (4) posing real-world problems that address societal inequalities; and (5) helping students implement action-oriented solutions.

The fatty acid composition of seeds from seven species of the genusPinus (P. pinaster, P. griffithii, P. pinea, P. koraiensis, P. sylvestris, P. mughus, andP. nigra) was established. Pine seeds are rich in oil (31–68% by weight) and contain several unusual polymethylene-interrupted unsaturated fatty acids with acis-5 ethylenic bond. These are thecis-5,cis-9 18:2,cis-5,cis-9,cis-12 18:3,cis-5,cis-11 20:2, andcis-5,cis-11,cis-14 20:3 acids, with a trace ofcis-5,cis-9,cis-12,cis-15 18:4 acid. Their percentage relative to total fatty acids varies from a low of 3.1% (P. pinea) to a high of 30.3% (P. sylvestris), depending on the species. The majorcis-5 double bond-containing acid is generally thecis-5,cis-9,cis-12 18:3 acid (pinolenic acid). In all species, linoleic acid represents approximately one-half the total fatty acids, whereas the content of oleic acid varies in the range 14–36% inversely to the sum of fatty acids containing acis-5 ethylenic bond. The easily available seeds fromP. koraiensis appear to be a good source of pinolenic acid: their oil content isca. 65%, and pinolenic represents about 15% of total fatty acids. These values appear to be rather constant.Pinus pinaster, which is grown on several thousand acres in the southwest of France, is an interesting source ofcis-5,cis-11,cis-14 20:3 acid (7% in the oil, which isca. 35% of the dehulled seed weight), an acid sharing in common three double bonds with arachidonic acid. Apparently,P. sylvestris seed oil contains the highest level ofcis-5 double bond-containing acids among pine seed oils that have ever been analyzed.

Τα τελευταία είκοσι χρόνια ο Jack Mezirow έχει χωροθετήσει τη μετασχηματίζουσα μάθηση στο χάρτη της εκπαίδευσης ενηλίκων και συνεχίζει να αποτελεί κίνητρο για σημαντική διανοητική δράση στην περιοχή αυτή. Προκλητικό και διαφωτιστικό, το βιβλίο αυτό είναι απαραίτητο για τους εκπαιδευτές ενηλίκων που αναζητούν την κατανόηση της μετασχηματίζουσας μάθησης, η οποία ασχολείται με την ουσία ενός παλιού διλήμματος: το δεσμό μεταξύ προσωπικής και κοινωνικής αλλαγής. Καθώς σήμερα τα ζητήματα της εκπαίδευσης ενηλίκων καθίστανται ολοένα πιο κεντρικά στην εκπαίδευση και την πολιτική της, η ανάδυση και η κατανόηση από ένα ευρύ κοινό όρων όπως «διά βίου μάθηση», «συνεχιζόμενη επαγγελματική ανάπτυξη», «κοινωνία της μάθησης» και, πιο πρόσφατα, «κοινωνία της γνώσης» αποτελούν μια ένδειξη της διάδοσης της εκπαίδευσης ενηλίκων.

This exercise is based on a traditional form of Sufi meditation first brought to the west by Hazrat Inayat Khan. The current form has a strongly ecological component that serves to build a living sense of connection to the Earth via an embodied breathing practice.

Arjen Wals works at the department of education and competence Studies, Wageningen university, the netherlands. email: [email protected] Noor van der Hoeven worked at the department of education and competence Studies, Wageningen university, at the time of the research, and is currently employed at greenpeace netherlands.